State College leads in recycling with compost program

JESSICA VANDERKOLK Centre Daily Times

STATE COLLEGE — Every napkin placed on a table at The Autoport restaurant, every pineapple stem discarded and every batch of used coffee grounds now go into a collection bin that joins food waste from across the borough to create compost.

The first program of its kind east of the Mississippi River, the borough began curbside pickup of food waste in January 2010 from some residential areas and, later, from businesses.

A $280,000 grant from the state , with a borough match of about $80,000, helped fund last year’s pilot program, which the borough continues. It will report on the program to the DEP in May.

Using results of a survey, the borough chose to collect in the Greentree, Orchard Park and South Hills neighborhoods.

In mid-February 2010, several businesses and schools in the State College Area School District entered the program.

Autoport owner Lynda Mussi said the restaurant plans to remain with the program, saying it has gone "great."

"It’s just a really nice way to cut back on our trash bill," she said. "It’s so outrageously expensive. If you’re cutting pineapple, it’s heavy."

For The Autoport, where the philosophy includes buying local and serving fresh foods, composting fits right in.

"It became very natural," she said. "Everybody just did it."

The borough’s goal, by next year, is to reduce landfill materials to 35 percent of the total waste stream. Last year, leaves, grass, brush, other green waste and food waste totaled about 37 percent of the 14,667 tons of landfill waste.

The borough diverted about 113 1/2 tons of material through the food composting program last year, less than 1 percent of waste sent to the landfill.

"While our diversion rate from food waste alone was modest, the pilot is showing some encouraging results," said Ed Holmes, borough public services manager. "There are nine commercial/institutional participants in the program, plus 561 residences that have collection equipment."

Of those, 474 residences participated at least once, and more than 20 percent placed collection carts at the curb three-quarters of the time.

The average collection cart held just less than 14 pounds of food waste last year, though that increased to almost 17 pounds during the last quarter, when the borough added green waste to the food waste collection.

The program will expand this year, and Holmes said he expects to add more downtown businesses within the month. He doesn’t plan to add more residences at this point.